The third and final article in HPRC’s series about PFT/PRT training focuses on the importance of flexibility and mobility.

Flexibility and mobility are important because they affect your joints and the surrounding muscles, tendons, and ligaments—and the way you move. You need give-and-take between joint flexibility, mobility, and stability for coordinated and efficient movements as well as injury prevention. It’s important to keep your body fit for movement, especially as you train for your Physical Fitness (PFT) and Physical Readiness Tests (PRT).

You can perform stretching and mobility exercises to promote long-term changes and improvements too. To boost and maintain your flexibility and mobility, you need to incorporate dynamic warm-ups, as well as a stretching or mobility cool-down into your regular training regimen. Read more...

Power your performance with colorful produce! Eating colorful fruits and veggies can help reduce your risk of stroke, heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers too. They also contain water, electrolytes, vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates—all essential nutrients for top performance in the gym or on the field.

Eat your greens and other colors in the produce “rainbow.”

Think pink. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables their red color, and it might reduce your risk of heart disease and some cancers. Enjoy lycopene-rich foods such as watermelon, pink grapefruit, and tomatoes.

Enjoy orange. Many yellow and orange vegetables and fruits get their color from beta-carotene. It’s an antioxidant that can reduce your risk of headaches, high blood pressure, and more. Choose sweet potatoes, mangoes, peaches, and others.

Get right with white. These fruits and vegetables contain potassium, fiber, and other nutrients. Fiber-filled fruits and vegetables can help lower your risk of obesity too. White produce includes bananas, white corn, cauliflower, and pears.

Pick purple. These vegetables and fruits get their color fromanthocyanins, which is a powerful phytonutrient that might reduce your risk of chronic disease. Enjoy purple berries, grapes, eggplants, and more.

For adults, the current daily recommendation is 2–3 cups of vegetables and 2 cups of fruit. Remember that raw, cooked, steamed, grilled, and broiled varieties all count, so fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables at mealtimes.

“How” you say something is as important as “what” you say when it comes to communication. Being assertive means you express your opinion and stand up for yourself in an honest and respectful way while also maintaining consideration for others’ thoughts and feelings. When expressing yourself, it’s important to be assertive—that is, neither aggressive nor passive.

Assertive people offer up their perspectives, are able to say “no” without feeling guilty, and ask for what they need. Assertive communication gives you the best chance at effectively conveying your message, and it’s a way to further build your self-confidence. Being assertive and a good listener leads to healthy, productive communication. Read more...

Part 2 of HPRC’s PFT/PRT training series focuses on muscular strength and endurance—critical components to performing your best on your fitness test.

Another basic component of PFT/PRT training involves muscular strength and endurance, but as with aerobic conditioning, you need to develop it over time, not just before your fitness tests. Whether you’re training or in the field, your muscular strength and endurance are essential components of your overall fitness and injury prevention.

But training to improve muscular strength is not the same as training for muscular endurance. Muscular strength is the amount of force that a muscle can produce with a single maximum effort. Muscular endurance is the ability to sustain a muscle contraction over a period of time, or to repeatedly contract a muscle over a period of time (for example, push-ups and sit-ups).

Learn how to use the FITT principle to develop a muscular fitness routine that will build both strength and endurance to prepare for the PFT/PRT and beyond. Read more...

If you’re experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), it’s important to understand how the different parts of your brain function. Post-traumatic stress is a normal response to traumatic events. However, PTSD is a more serious condition that impacts brain function, and it often results from traumas experienced during combat, disasters, or violence.

Your brain is equipped with an alarm system that normally helps ensure your survival. With PTSD, this system becomes overly sensitive and triggers easily. In turn, the parts of your brain responsible for thinking and memory stop functioning properly. When this occurs, it’s hard to separate safe events happening now from dangerous events that happened in the past. Read more...

Intimacy is essential to your healthy romantic relationship. Learn how to connect with your partner.

Intimacy is your sense of closeness with your partner, and it’s a key component of successful romantic relationships. You can build it by sharing thoughts, ideas, experiences, and emotions, and through physical touch. The level of shared intimacy in your romantic relationship makes it different from other relationships too. Many couples report greater relationship satisfaction when they share intimacy, while others tend to seek therapy when they lack intimacy.

So, how do you build intimacy in your relationship?

Communicate with your partner. Positive communication leads to higher levels of intimacy. It builds when you discuss your own vulnerabilities, and your partner listens and strives to understand your experiences. This can be challenging for Warfighters who train to not share information. To work through this, practice being assertive and a good listener. Intimacy builds when you share things that are deeply personal and your partner listens, honors, and respects what you’re saying.

Choose the “right” time to talk. An important piece of good communication is timing—and knowing when your partner is able to fully listen. Asking your partner, “Do you have some time to talk?” can help you determine that “right” time to talk things over. If distance makes it hard to find time to talk, written communication can be very effective if it’s assertive and received with respect.

Enjoy time together. You also can build intimacy by spending time doing mutually enjoyable activities. Experiencing new things with your partner can create a shared sense of intimacy as you encounter obstacles and solve problems together.

Intimacy builds over time and through multiple experiences, so it requires an ongoing investment from you. And remember it’s common for couples to experience peaks and valleys of intimacy levels in their long-term relationships. Visit HPRC’s Sex, Sexuality, & Intimacy section for more information on how to build intimacy in your relationship.

Learn how to boost your cardiovascular fitness before your next PFT/PRT.

The PFT/PRT is designed to test your cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength. In this three-part series, HPRC takes a closer look at each component, offers tips on training optimization, and suggests how to prevent common training-related injuries.

Preparation for your Physical Fitness (PFT) and Physical Readiness Tests (PRT) takes time and discipline. Training for the test isn’t something you should start the month before the test, and the fitness habits you develop leading up to the test should continue year-round. Weekend warriors and procrastinators are at greater risk of injury, and it’s likely that your performance will be less than optimal when it comes time for your test.

HPRC provides a series of articles with guidelines to help you prepare for the PFT/PRT, beginning with this one on cardiovascular fitness. Read more...

This Memorial Day, take a mindful moment to remember those who have served honorably and made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

Memorial Day marks a national day of remembrance to honor those who lost their lives while protecting our country and values. Our fallen service members deserve our utmost respect, so take some time to mindfully acknowledge and respect their sacrifices.

Mindfulness is the practice of cultivating your attention and focus in a way that allows you to deeply appreciate the present moment. The practice of mindful remembrance also can help you more fully acknowledge the sacrifices of others. Whatever your plans this Memorial Day, try to engage in the 3 R’s:

Reflect: Stop, take a deep breath, and reflect on what you value most in your life. Appreciate what’s around you: your home, treasured friends and family, health, and career. Then internally shift attention: Tune into your heart beating and chest rising and falling with each breath.

Recognize: There are many people who enable the life you lead. They contribute in both small and big ways too. So pause and thank those who make things possible. Mindful appreciation can amplify your ability to feel gratitude toward people and events that you often might take for granted.

Remember: Think of someone you know who has lost his or her life in service to our country. Say the service member’s name out loud. Repeat it to yourself. Take a few quiet moments to recall a special memory, photograph, or simply what this person meant to you. Or commit to reading or sharing a story about a Warfighter whose actions you revere.

Remembering the fallen is a sacred and enduring responsibility that should be front and center at all Memorial Day festivities, and this practice can start with you. To learn about an organization that has created the goal of mindfully recognizing every fallen service member since September 11, 2001, visit the Mindful Memorial Day page.

Watch HPRC’s video below for more on how to cultivate a mindful remembrance practice.

Picnics and barbecues are just around the corner, so be mindful of food safety as you soak up the summer sun and fun. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates one in 6 Americans get sick from foodborne illnesses, including those associated with poorly cooked or stored foods in hot environments. Still, there are ways to keep your favorite foods safe—and your friends and loved ones healthy—this summer.

Keep it clean. Wash your hands with warm water and soap for at least 20 seconds before and after handling uncooked eggs or raw meat, poultry, and seafood (and their juices). To prevent cross-contamination, wash utensils and cutting boards with hot, soapy water after food prep too. Tip: Fill a spray bottle with 1 Tbsp chlorine bleach and water, and use it to sanitize your countertops and other food-prep surfaces.

Cool it. Thaw frozen foods in the refrigerator, not on the countertop. Safely marinate your meats, poultry, and seafood in the refrigerator until it’s time to cook. Don’t reuse marinade, and don’t serve it with cooked foods.

Cook foods thoroughly. Use a food thermometer to check for doneness. Make sure cooked foods have reached a safe internal temperature:

Fresh beef, pork, veal, and lamb (steaks, roasts, and chops)—145°F

Fresh fish—145°F

Ground beef, pork, veal, and lamb (burgers and sausages)—160°F

All poultry and pre-cooked meats (such as hot dogs)—165°F

Refrigerate your leftovers. Chill your foods to stop the growth of bacteria that can cause foodborne illnesses. Refrigerate items within 2 hours of cooking or 1 hour if the outside temperature is at or above 90°F. Tip: If you’re outside, keep things chilled at 40°F or less in a cooler, or place them directly on ice.

There’s great joy in becoming a new parent. To ease the stress during this transition and forge a bond with your little one, try singing to your baby.

While having a baby can bring immense joy, it also can spark anxieties for new parents and cause tension between them. So try singing lullabies to help relieve stress and soothe your cranky infant.

An infant’s neediness sometimes can make new parents question their competence. It’s normal to worry about your baby’s health and your new parenting role. Singing lullabies and other playful songs can help you feel connected to your baby as you share a soothing and enjoyable interaction. Moms, in particular, report that singing to their infants helps them experience and convey positive emotions such as happiness, pleasure, and satisfaction.

Singing is a way to focus attention on your baby and see your little one’s reactions to your voice, gestures, and facial expressions. This type of exchange can help you feel more confident as a parent and closer to your baby. His or her reactions can then inspire feelings such as pride and amazement, which dampens your stress and anxieties.

Singing lullabies can help new parents feel satisfied and calm too. There’s often a physical component to singing as well, where you sway together, or your infant snuggles in your lap. Some parents also report that singing changes their babies’ behavior. Babies can feel calmer, and both parent and baby can experience relaxation and harmony together. Mothers who sing to their babies say it soothes them, which leads to less crying.

If you’re currently pregnant, start singing to your baby now and continue after her or his birth. It’s possible singing taps into a natural tendency you have, but even if it doesn’t, singing lullabies and other playful songs is something you can get acquainted with doing. Use this strategy to lessen “new parent” stress and help you bond with your baby.

2012

Some documents are in a PDF format. Download Adobe Acrobat Reader here.

Linking Policy:

The appearance of a hyperlink does not constitute endorsement of the linked website or the information, products or services contained therein by the United States Government, Department of Defense, uniformed services or Uniformed Services University. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and morale, welfare, and recreation sites, the Department of Defense, uniformed services and the Uniformed Services University does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at this location. This link is provided consistent with the stated purpose of this military web.

Anonymous Information Gathering:

HPRC allows AddThis to collect certain anonymous information when you visit our website. They use non-personally identifiable information during your visits to this and other websites provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you. These companies typically use a cookie or a third party web beacon to collect this information. To learn more about this behavioral advertising practice, you can visit www.networkadvertising.org.